What I'm saying is that the right regulation, not just the absence of it, will be increasingly

powerful as a force for attracting businesses to one's shores. For many of these countries,

however, there is also another side of the game theory, which has to do with ties and reliance

on the U.S. economic system and the dollar at the center of it. It's not so much that I think

countries like El Salvador or Panama are particularly poorly served by the dollar system now or even unhappy with it.

It's just that they recognize they're in a position of limited power relative to the system as a

whole. And for them, Bitcoin then looks like a hedge.

Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

The breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.

What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, September 9th, and today we are talking about Ukraine legalizing Bitcoin. Before we get into a little

global tour of what's going on with Bitcoin around the world, however, a couple more follow-ups

on Coinbase and the SEC. You got my take yesterday, which was largely about the frustration

that the crypto industry has with how the SEC is approaching this.

However, there were plenty of folks in traditional finance who came out of the woodwork

to call Brian Armstrong and his counsel effectively idiots and sometimes explicitly idiots

for not just getting that lending is a security.

What I think is worth restating or re-arguing

about this is the pattern of engagement and the unwillingness of the SEC to commit to

explanations of their reasoning. To put it clearly, the Twitter pundits who are castigating

Coinbase for not getting why lending is a security are providing more argument, more

justification around their logic

...